


Trecherous Things

by in_a_blog_in_the_ground



Series: One-Shots [4]
Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies), The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, I'm not sure how to tag this in case people need warnings, bit of Violence, there are dead things and a fight and more things made dead, unpleasant imagery?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-17
Updated: 2013-07-17
Packaged: 2017-12-20 11:07:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,995
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/886533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/in_a_blog_in_the_ground/pseuds/in_a_blog_in_the_ground
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nori has a run-in with some unpleasant creatures.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Trecherous Things

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Bofur1](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bofur1/gifts).



> Nori's still pretty young, this is set some time before the Quest, and he's still a little inexperienced and not as sensitive to the signs of danger as he will learn to be later on.

_Shite. Shiteshiteshite._

Nori was not having a good day.

As he ran through the densely packed forest, dodging tree trunks and fallen logs, an internal monologue kept up a steady stream of curses in a variety of languages. He could see crooked shadows rustling the foliage behind him, and hear the screeches and ragged pants of his pursuers. Occasionally they would come up level with him and cut him off if he tried to turn in a different direction, as if herding him. This was decidedly worrisome, but Nori was a little too preoccupied to take notice.

Nori let out a yelp as his boot slipped on some moss and he slipped down an incline, landing in a small stagnant pond at the bottom. Sputtering and spitting brackish water, he hauled himself up to continue running, but the sticky mud in the pond was sucking at his feet. As he tried to pull himself out, he noticed the water suddenly draining away…

_Bugger._

Those gobs are nasty, horrid creatures, but damn if they’re not clever at traps…

The bottom of the pond fell away, and the mud pulled Nori down a slide into the caves below the forest.

-

He landed with a squelch in a dark cavern. Nori freed himself of the worst of the mud, but remained in a cautious low crouch. There was a certain smell that he couldn’t quite place but made him extremely uneasy. His dwarven eyes could barely make out several dim shapes, swaying gently. Suddenly a torch was lit behind him and he whirled around.

Blocking the only other entrance out of the room besides the chute in the ceiling was a group of goblins, the largest of which was holding the torch and staring stupidly at the dwarf. The goblin at the front of the pack was a mean-looking creature with one cracked tooth poking sideways out of its mouth and armed with a long and rusty curved sword.

It pointed the sword at Nori and spat out a command in its garbled tongue. With cackles of delights, the other goblins leapt upon Nori. Roaring, he fought back, and was able to throw some of the smaller creatures off, but in the end their numbers were too great, and he found himself pinned to the floor of the cavern. Tilting his head back, he could see what the gently swinging shapes from earlier were.

The cavern served several purposes as a retrieval, butchery, and storeroom all at once. The shapes were in fact the bodies of other victims; killed, strung up, and left to bleed out into buckets and pans left underneath to catch the spillage. Nori discerned the corpses of other goblins with somewhat different characteristics that these, deer and other woodland animals, and a couple in a shadowy corner resembling Men, but much smaller…

Horrified and disgusted, he brought his full attention back to the goblins as the largest one with the torch stomped forward and raised up a filthy foot to stamp his head in. Frozen, he watched as the foot was raised above him, blinked when several particles of dirt fell onto his face, and suddenly remembered some thing.

 _“Griznak!_ I call for _Griznak!”_

The chittering in the cavern stopped, and, as if confused by the sudden sound of its language coming from a strange mouth, the large goblin paused momentarily, swaying as it struggled to balance on one foot. Nori winced, hoping it wouldn’t fall on him.

 _“Kas!”_ The leader barked, and strode forward. Nori breathed out in relief as the foot retreated from in front of his face and hit the ground with a thud.

Motioning for his minions to let the dwarf sit up, the snaggle-toothed goblin knelt in front of Nori, leaning with the point of the sword buried in the dirt between Nori’s knees. Pressing its face forward, looking distinctly confused, it croaked out in heavily accented Westron: “You wot?”

“I-I demand trial by combat. I win, you lot let me go. I lose-”

“We eats you, Meats,” The goblin, evidently a chieftain of some sort, interrupted. “I know _Griznak._ How you know _Griznak?_ Thaz juz fer gobs…” Snaggle-Tooth raised his sword from the dirt and idly tested the edge with his thumb, watching Nori and seeming to contemplate something.

“Eh!” he exclaimed suddenly, coming to a decision. “Yez, give _Griznak._ Long time, no sport. Mebbe we eats you anyway, Meats.” With an ugly leer, Snaggle-Tooth pushed himself up and snapped an order.

-

Nori was hauled up and marched out along a short tunnel to a much larger cavern pock-marked with other tunnel entrances; some of the higher ones connected with rickety rope bridges. Snaggle-Tooth made his way to the middle and bayed out “ _Griznak!”_ as the cavern exploded with the excited squeals and shrieks of goblins eager to see some death.

Within short order, the tunnels, bridges, and ground floor were crowded with goblins, all howling for Nori’s blood. A ring had been cleared in the middle of the room, made by many goblins linking their long arms together. Nori was shoved forward into the center, coming face to face again with Snaggle-Tooth. Putting his fists up, Nori adopted a low, solid stance and prepared to fight.

To his surprise, Snaggle-Tooth laughed and twirled his sword, finally pointing it in Nori’s direction.

“Kah! Not me, Meats! Him.”

Nori turned to see the largest, ugliest gob he’d ever seen shove his way forward through the crowd, bounding up and over the arms of the goblins forming the ring to land heavily in front of him. The thing roared in his face, sending gobblets of spit flying, and slammed its spiked cudgel into the ground in challenge.

Leaping back from the blow, Nori shot a glance at Snaggle-Tooth, now hurriedly retreating from the ring.

“Don’t I get a weapon?!”

“Kah kah kah, course not, Meats!”

Snarling, Nori turned back to his opponent in time to dodge the swinging cudgel aimed at his head.

The goblin was slavering, its eyes reddened with battle-fury. Foam flew from its mouth as it wildly flailed its weapon.

Coming close to the edge of the ring, Nori tucked and rolled as his opponent brought the cudgel around in a sweeping low arc. The backswing took out two of the goblins linking arms, but they went unnoticed and were quickly replaced by others. The cavern echoed with screeching, hooting calls.

As Nori scrambled around the huge goblin, keeping low, he desperately tried to come up with a plan. He had to leave his pack and mace behind this morning when he heard the goblins sneaking up on his camp, fleeing into the woods with only the clothes on his back…and the knife in his boot.

With this sudden remembrance, a glint came back to his eye, and a flash of his teeth could be seen as a grin crept its way back across his face.

Surprising the goblin with his next move, a roll that brought him right up alongside it instead of away, Nori brushed his hand alongside the cuff of his right boot and drew out a smooth, straight blade. With a deft slice, he brought it across the back of the goblin’s ankle, hamstringing it and bringing it down on one knee with a howl of agony.

Enraged, the goblin swung out its empty hand, catching Nori on the side and sending him tumbling, but he was up again in a flash. The goblin regained its footing, and dragging one leg, came after Nori again; pain forgotten in its single-minded mission: to pulp the flighty creature in front of it into red paste.

Nori was ready. The goblin may have been twice his size, three times his weight, and filled to the brim with murderous intent, but there was no one this side of the Misty Mountains or the other better with a knife, or happier with one in his hand.

Using the massive goblin’s injured leg to his advantage, Nori swooped in on its bad side again, ducking under the arm and slicing at the back of the knee, bringing the goblin crashing down once again. It raised the cudgel straight up and brought it down towards Nori’s head, but he leaped back, and using the cudgel’s shaft as a launch point, jumped up and kicked the goblin squarely in the face with a heavy boot. The goblin’s head flew back, bringing the rest of the body with it in a backwards arc. To help it along, Nori took a couple steps for momentum and landed a double-booted kick to the goblin’s chest, tucking his own body forward and grabbing the goblin’s neck, riding it the rest of the way to the ground, where his weight crushed the air from its lungs. Making sure it was looking him in the eyes, Nori slit the goblin’s throat and eluding its still desperately grasping hands, made his way back to the center of the arena, tight fist clenching his dripping blade and face contorted in battle-fuel rage as he panted.

The snaggle-toothed goblin made his way forward, sword lowered as he gaped between Nori and the downed goblin champion in clear disbelief.

“So…” Nori panted, “which is the way out?”

The chieftain stared at him, slack-jawed, but then his face began to harden, lips curling up to reveal yellowed fangs, and red seeping into his eyes.

“For you Meats…this!”

With a screech, he raised his sword and launched himself at Nori.

Half expecting the maneuver, Nori had his knife up in time to block it, and with far greater skill than the chieftain’s hacking and slashing style, soon had Snaggle-Tooth disarmed. He forced one of the goblin chief’s arms up its back in a lock, and held his knife to its throat when the crowd of goblins advanced, confused, but unsure what to do.

“Tell ‘em t’back off, or I’m slittin’ yer froat like yer buddy’s there,” Nori growled in what passed for Snaggle-Tooth’s ear.

The chieftain rattled off an order, and the press of goblins shrank back a little at the vehemence of his words.

“Lead us out now, there’s a good gob,” Nori said, twisting the goblin’s arm slightly.

Backing out of the room, Nori and his hostage marched back ranks of goblins, as still and silent as stone, only their eyes moving as they followed the pair’s progress.

Nori did not release the chieftain until they were out of the caves, blinking in the sudden glare of the late afternoon sun.

Spinning the goblin around with a flick of his arm, Nori brought them face to face.

“You broke the agreement. I should kill you for that here and now…”

Snaggle-Tooth fell to his knees before the dwarf and clutched at the edge of Nori’s coat. “Pleez, Mea- er, Master, mercy mercy! Iz gob, iz, uh, nature! You out now, you free! Mercy, iz poor old gob!”

Nori kicked him off with a sneer of disdain, and turned to go. He heard the whisper of a weapon being drawn, switched his knife to his other hand, and whirled around, blade-first, to intercept the sharpened sliver of bone the treacherous goblin chieftain had stabbed towards his back. With a quick flick of the knife, the bone spun into the foliage.

The goblin was truly scared now, backing up towards the hidden entrance of the tunnels, afraid to take its eyes off Nori, who was advancing at a menacing pace. Snaggle-Tooth’s back caught up against a tree trunk, and he raised shaking hands.

“M-mercy…”

Nori slit him guts to crown and watched impassively as his body slid down in a heap.

“No.”

Wiping the dark goblin blood off his knife, Nori peered around at the surrounding forest to get his bearings, and made his way back to his camp the night previous. Pleased at finding his pack untouched, he shrugged it on and on impulse, decided to follow the setting sun.

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah, I just made up some goblin words. I dunno. *shrug*
> 
> Also, this is not Goblin Town, just an outlying settlement of goblins somewhere, maybe a hundred gobs, give or take? I reckon they war with other surrounding tribes, and the losers get eaten or enslaved or something.


End file.
